Governance in Christian Higher Education
Category: Christian Higher Education
The Providence Board of Governors has just adopted a different form of governance by creating a Senate. In doing so it has agreed to delegate some of its duties to a body outside of itself. This is a step of great courage. Is it Christian?
I think so. While we await the coming of the King of Kings, it seems to me that one of the ways we combat the foibles of human sin is to institute systems of sharing the leadership, authority, and power that are encompassed in the concept of governance. In studying the Roman Empire from 100 B.C. to 400 A.D. it becomes clear that the Empire achieved the greatest good for the largest number of people in the few times when its ruler acted benevolently and selflessly. A benevolent dictatorship is the best form of social, economic, and political system.
Christian doctrine asserts that we are all sinners by nature and by practice. Therefore, the best system is not possible until the Lord returns. So, in the meantime, we need to have systems where governance is shared among sinners in a way that offers checks and balances. We also need to trust that the Holy Spirit is present in the group(s) of people that lead us, not just in single individuals. So, yes, I think shared governance is Christian. In fact, it is necessary in the church and in the world. I look forward to seeing how shared governance will work at Providence.
To see a statement of the system look at governance under "about us" on the Providence website.
David Johnson
Category: Providence
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David Johnson, Executive VP/Provost
Category: Christians and Business
Like most academic administrators, I have very little training in institutional leadership. I was chosen by my colleagues to be the Dean of Providence Seminary from my position of Professor of NT and have recently been moved to the position of Provost/Executive VP. Because of a lack of training, I have read a dozen books and many, many articles on leadership, management, planning, implementation, project management, etc. I don't know if it's just me, but in all of this reading I have found that what seems to be the best advice and what turns out to be best practices are actually very Christian. For example, at the end of The Leadership Challenge, Kouzes and Posner say that the key to effective leadership is love. I read a blog today that asserted that the best leaders are not about power but about spreading freedom. This sounds a lot like Jesus. It seems to me that most of Peter Drucker's insights about management are common sense. Things that go beyond common sense strongly reflect Christian values. I don't want to assert that Christianity has a corner on the leadership ethics market, but it does seem to me that leaders who are Christian would do well to concentrate as much on being Christian as they do on being leaders.
David Johnson
Category: Bible and Theology
In a Doctor of Ministry class this week Lissa Wray Beal (associate professor of OT) and I had opportunity to present on the state of biblical studies at the beginning of the 21st century. We both talked about more recent views that the Bible (especially the historical books) is the product of authors who have theological agendas and so colour their stories to match these agendas.
After Dr Wray Beal and I left, the class processed our discussions. It was questioned whether we believed that the events recorded in the Bible happened. I think this is often the question when matters of interpretation are discussed. It is true that many who adopt a view such as ours, which says the Biblical writers coloured their narrative to make their theological point, do not believe the events really happened. In other words, they believe the writers made up the stories. But this is not the view of Dr Wray Beal and me. We do not want to be misunderstood. We believe the events recorded in the historical books of the Bible really did happen.
Post Secondary Education in a Democratic Society
Category: Christian Higher Education
The Canadian Association of University Teachers has censored Trinity Western University for its hiring practices. “A school that requires its faculty to subscribe to a particular religious belief or ideology cannot be practicing academic freedom,” said James Turk, executive director of CAUT. “This is not about the school being Christian, but about faculty having to sign a statement of faith before being hired. A university is meant as a place to explore ideas, not to create disciples of Christ.”
Turk is not raising questions about employment, which should be the jurisdiction of his organization. He acknowledges that there has been no complaint from any of the university professors concerning their lack of academic freedom. No job has been threatened because a professor has violated the confessions of the university.
The professors at universities such as Trinity have all freely chosen to teach there and have felt affirmed in their freedom. As has been expressed by many who have taught at both public and private universities, universities with confessional requirements actually offer more academic freedom than many public universities, whose academic freedom is limited by activist groups and unstated philosophical requirements which cannot be violated.
Turk is requiring a particular philosophy in his own definitions of academic freedom: the only legitimate pursuit of knowledge must affirm his epistemology. This excludes all world views that accept the possibility that knowledge may be pursued with belief in a created order within the universe.
Category: Bible and Theology
In an article in the Bulletin for Biblical Research (1996) Lee MacDonald asked the question, “Can there be a theological integrity to the biblical canon when there are a number of unresolved questions relating to how it was formed, when it was formed, what factors let to its forming, and how to account for the divergences within it?” In other words, how shall we use the Bible for theology if we are not sure what the Bible is? At the end of the day, of course, the church has used the Bible for theology for many centuries without having answers to questions of origin or divergence. Nevertheless in the modern setting (although post-modernists might disagree) the historical questions should be explored and answered if possible. So over the next few years I hope occasionally in this blog to stimulate some thinking (particularly my own) on the topic of the development of the New Testament Canon.
To start let me identify a couple of the historical questions. The main one, at least since the publication of David Dungan’s Constantine’s Bible (2007), is "Who is responsible for the gathering of the New Testament canon?" Dungan takes the general ideas of the state of doctrine in the second century from Walter Bauer's Orthodoxy and Heresy, and applies them particularly to the question of canon origins. The title to the book offers Dungan's answer, it was Constantine who brought all the wonderful debate to a close supported by Eusebius. The sub-title Politics and the Making of the New Testament, gives the reason for Constantine's choice: Politics, imperial and ecclesiastical. It seems to me that the historical events are more complicated than this, but the question is clear, who made
Welcome to the Providence Blog!
Category: Providence
Welcome to the new Providence Weblog! Our goal is to use this blog to further the mission of Providence College and Seminary which is to be a Christian academic community that teaches people to grow in knowledge and character for leadership and service. The initial contributors to this blog will be President August Konkel, Executive Vice President David Johnson, invited guests, and you, our readers through your comments. As time goes on the authors will be expanded. We are starting small with something we think we can manage, so we have five categories of blogs. Since we have ten people in the departments of Biblical and Theological Sudies, Bible and Theology seems to a natural for our constituents. Being a part of Christian Higher Education Canada (CHEC) also seems to make Christian Higher Education a logical category. We also want to comment on Church News. We are developing a certain expertise in Business Administration so Christians and Business may be of benefit to some. Finally, once in a while we selfishly want to say a few things about Providence.
I find it helpful to know something about the bloggers that I read, so let me tell you a little bit about us in this initial posting. Dr August Konkel is Professor of Old Testament as well as President. He teaches every semester both here and
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